'British neo-Nazis' hunted after Hitler salute in German concentration camp where 56,000 murdered

Two men hold a National Action flag as they give the Nazi flag in a former morgue at Buchenwald concentration camp. A caption points to 'meat hooks' from which SS guards choked an estimated 1,100 victims to deathCredit:
Twitter

The investigation centres on a photograph published on Twitter by National Action, a known British neo-Nazi group.

In the picture, two men are seen holding a National Action flag and giving the Nazi salute in a room clearly recognisable as an underground morgue at the concentration camp known as the “corpse cellar”, because the bodies of the dead were stored there before cremation.

A caption on the picture points to “meat hooks” on the wall from which SS guards choked an estimated 1,100 victims to death. Beside the caption, there is a crude smiley face.

This is a serious dishonour to all the nearly 280,000 people held at Buchenwald, among whom there were also BritonsVolkhard Knigge

German police say they do not know who the two men in the photograph are, because their faces are obscured by shadow.

“We are investigating unknown perptrators, because the faces are distorted,” a police spokesman said. “But we take such actions very seriously."

German intelligence services reportedly been enlisted to help identify the two men.

If they are found, they could face up to three years in prison in Germany, under strict laws which forbid Nazi symbols including the Hitler salute.

National Action is an openly neo-Nazi British organisation whose website shows masked men carrying swords, Nazi flags and banners proclaining “Hitler was right”.

The group claims to have several dozen members in the UK. The photograph was published on the Twitter feed of its regional branch in the north-west of England.

The branch’s Twitter bio reads: “Warm up the ovens, it’s time to get baked” - an apparent reference to the ovens in which the bodies of those murdered in the concentration camps were cremated.

The North West branch of National Action's Twitter bio reads: 'Warm up the ovens, it’s time to get baked'Credit:
Twitter

An estimated 56,000 prisoners were murdered at Buchenwald by the Nazis. The site was not an extermination camp like Auschwitz.

Many prisoners died of starvation or as the result of Nazi medial experiments, while others were worked to death as slave labourers or executed by SS guards.

“Oy vey, such horrors,” National Action commented on the picture in its Twitter feed - in an apparent reference to the fact that many of the camp’s victims were Jewish.

An estimated 280,000 prisoners were held at Buchenwald, among them Poles, gypsies, homosexuals and mentally ill people as well as Jews.

They also included a number of British airmen who were captured hiding in civilian clothing after being shot down over France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

“The photograph staged by alleged British neo-Nazis in the crematorium cellar of Buchenwald is witness to a very specific criminal ideology,” Volkhard Knigge, the director of the Buchenwald memorial, said in a statement.

“The perpetrators openly profess Nazism and support for its mass murders. This is a serious dishonour to all the nearly 280,000 people held at Buchenwald, among whom there were also Britons.”

While German neo-Nazis sometimes defy the laws against the Hitler salute at their own events, it is extremely rare for anyone to risk performing it in one of the well-guarded former concentration camps.

“The likelihood of being caught doing the sort of thing seen in this photograph is pretty high,” Dr Knigge said.

“It therefore appears that the perpetrators did not act spontaneously, but had thought out and prepared what they did in advance.”

Twitter refused to comment on the photograph or say whether it would be taking any action against the National Action account.

"We don't comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons," a spokesman for the company said.